Falling Through the Cracks
by Cheklov's Gun
Summary: And here Zack thought that reincarnation meant that he'd be human again. Silly, feathery Zack. Snippets; non chronological for the most part.
1. 5 x 100Words: Zackobo Verse

AN: Five 100-words prompts in the FFVII in what I affectionately call the Zackobo-verse.

**Courtship**

The first thing Cloud did when the black chocobo plopped down next to him was make sure he didn't have a Chocobo Lure equipped. Once sure he didn't, he looked at the bird.

"Did you wander away from a ranch somewhere?'

The chocobo just nudged his leg with its beak and dropped something in his lap. Curious, Cloud picked it up.

"Where did you..? And why are you giving…" Cloud trailed off, looking between the Zeio Nut in his hand and the black bird watching him with hopeful blue eyes.

"You're joking."

"Wark!"

"I'M NOT A CHOCOBO!"

**Physics**

Cloud snapped awake, breathing hard.

"Kweh?"

"Just bad dreams. Go back to sleep." That said, Cloud closed his eyes, shifting closer to the warm bulk of his bedmate, fingers tangling in scruffy black feathers.

It took a tragically long time for him to process that there should not be a chocobo in his bed.

Cloud speedily crossed the room, and definitely not with an unmanly shriek.

"How did you even fit through the door?" Not waiting for an answer, Cloud gathered his belongings and fled out the third floor window and into the night.

The chocobo went back to sleep.

**Too Much**

"Someone get that bird out of my bar!"

"WARK!"

Cloud's head hit the counter with a dull thud as he let out a little noise halfway between a sob and a whimper.

In his peripheral vision, he watched the black chocobo thump its beak down next to him and roll something at him.

When the Zeio Nut bumped into his cheek, he turned to glare balefully at the bird. It stared back, blue eyes soulful and needy. Cloud couldn't resist that gaze.

"You win! I'm a chocobo! KWEH!" Cloud stormed from the bar, chocobo following faithfully behind.

**Flowers**

"Just because I've admitted I look like…"

"WARK!"

"Fine. Just because I've admitted I AM a chocobo doesn't mean that you can get all smug. I won't take that damn nut."

The black chocobo was smug anyway, and Cloud swatted it idly. This caused it to nearly overbalance on the rafter the two of them lay on.

"I'm going to figure out how you get into places you really shouldn't be able to. It kinda reminds me of..."

Cloud lay back to lean against the chocobo.

"Just don't fall on the flowers, alright?"

**Mastermind**

When Fenrir started sputtering and coughing like Cid after Yuffie asked him to give her the talk, Cloud knew it was going to be one of those days.

Worse, he was on delivery.

When the black chocobo sauntered out of the desert fluttering his wings enticingly and trying and failing to look entirely too innocent, Cloud, despite his immediate and probably accurate suspicions, knew he couldn't say no.

He'd been had.

"If you had anything to do with this, bird…"

"Kweh…"

Easily slinging himself and various swords and packages atop the chocobo, "This doesn't mean you win."


	2. Zackobo Verse Continued

"This room," Cloud mused out loud, one hand stroking back the wild black-feathered crest of the chocobo resting it's head on his belly as he reclined on the bed that Tifa considered 'his' in a little room above Seventh Heaven, "seems a lot smaller than the last time I was here."

"Kweh…" The chocobo replied, tilting his head to get Cloud to dig his fingers in there and really scratch. None of this petting garbage for him! As long as he could fit through the door, the black chocobo really had no opinion on room sizes.

"Yes, yes, that is a side effect of having your massive feathery butt in here, but seriously…did Tifa put in a wall or something?" Obligingly, the chocobo lifted his head, glancing around the room briefly before dropping it back into place. He warked dismissively – why was this an issue, again?

Cloud, now frowning, worked his fingers down into the fuzzy gray down under the chocobo's feathers, scratching firmly, "You might not care, but…"

"Cloud. You're talking to the chocobo again," Tifa, leaning against the door frame, watched Cloud roll his head over to look at her, concerned. Ever since he'd shown up with that massive beast, he'd been…a little odd. More than normal, at least.

Admittedly, the change seemed… positive. A little friendlier, a little more willing to socialize, and the kids absolutely loved the bird too. But he was also talking to that bird like it could answer back, and attributing all sort s of bizarre abilities to it. Like sabotaging his motorcycle – Cid didn't know how that many feathers could have ended up in the engine, but saying that a chocobo was capable of getting 12 ounces of down in with a sealed piston?

Cloud shrugged from his place on the bed, "I know, I know. What's going on?" The chocobo was watching her now, too, with those laughing blue eyes that made her frown from their familiarity, planted in a chocobo face or not.

As far as Tifa was concerned, the most worrisome part of this whole chocobo situation was that Cloud might be _right_ about the damn bird.

She sighed, "You've got a delivery, and Cid is still swearing over your bike. You'll have to take Z…" She froze, her mouth slamming shut, her teeth clicking together hard enough to be audible as she bit back the rest of that involuntary word. Where had _that_ name come from? Why in the world would she…

But Cloud was smiling at her, though he was trying to hide it, and the chocobo was on his feet, looking back and forth between Tifa and Cloud and warking insistently, almost desperately. This continued on for a few moments, Tifa frozen, Cloud pretending obliviousness, and the chocobo growing increasingly frantic. Finally, the chocobo stopped, flaring his wings and dropping in an oddly human sigh. Then, balancing on one clawed foot, he lifted the other and made a very, very clear rude gesture at the blonde on the bed.

Then he flounced out of the room, gently pushing Tifa out of the way – he got stuck for a moment, put in a fit of scrabbling claws and flapping wings, got himself free – and marched downstairs in a cloud of wounded feathery dignity.

Tifa, holding on to the wall in the wake of this revelation, looked back at Cloud, who was still smiling, "What…that's really him? A_ chocobo? Really?_"

Smoothly rolling off the bed and beginning to collect the small armory he considered a sword, Cloud shrugged again, "I know, I know. I'm clueless about the how and the why of it, but I think it's pretty funny."

Tifa flailed one hand wildly, still not dealing with this well, "What was that whole…thing he was doing?"

Cloud rolled his shoulders, letting the leather of the sword harness settle properly, "Oh, that. Well, I know who he is, and he knows I know who he is, but pretending I don't is entertaining for me and frustrating for him." He stepped around Tifa and started down the stairs, calling back, "And I need to get back at him somehow for propositioning me with a zeio nut."

"…What? What! Cloud, what are you talking about?"


End file.
